By Jonathan Miller, on Fri Jan 20, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET OK, The RP has gone ahead and done it. He’s crossed that sacred line that no columnist dares to even approach. His column this week for The Huffington Post touches on the one social taboo that is unthinkable for every true-blooded American. Read an excerpt yourself:
 In my first full year as a recovering politician, I’ve capitalized on my newfound freedom to speak on the issues of the day without the restrictions of the typical partisan and special-interest handcuffs.
Best of all, I’ve finally been liberated to address — with detail, nuance, and unadulterated candor — some of the nation’s most controversial subjects: from gay marriage, to Middle East peace, to legalizing marijuana.
So today, I’m prepared to tackle the most polarizing subject of our modern era…Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow.
And I venture to do the unthinkable: try to convince liberals and progressives like myself to learn to love the latter-day poster boy of conservative Christian America.
We know you are dying to take a furtive peek at The RP’s rhetorical train wreck.
Click here to read the complete column, “The Liberal Case for Tim Tebow” at The Huffington Post.
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Mon Jan 9, 2012 at 9:30 AM ET  Romney’s still the frontrunner, but it doesn’t feel nearly as good as a tie for first should’ve felt for him.
Santorum has a window here. As has always been the case, Romney is in deep trouble in a two- or three-way race, assuming one of the others is Paul and the third is a strong social conservative. Perry and Bachmann will drop out before New Hampshire, I think. Perry made sure that 2/3 to 3/4 of their votes don’t go to Romney or Paul; they go to Santorum or Newt. But since AngryNewt will be running a kamikazi mission to damage Romney, not many will go to him.
A couple other side notes: the Santorum working-class contrast vs. the Mitt/Bain “guy who laid you off” could be effective in the battle for votes in what is, at the rank-and-file level, a largely downscale party.
Finally, Huntsman’s mini-boomlet in New Hampshire combined with Paul’s continued strength could deny Romney the big New Hampshire that the press has already discounted.
 So, Santorum has a shot here. He needs to do a few things: 1) find the best online fundraising team in Republican politics and sign them up; 2) Convince a few national conservative leaders to step up this week and try to unite conservatives nationally around him which means coaxing Bachmann out if she won’t decide herself; 3) Make sure he gets on the ballot everywhere and avoids Newt-like logistical screw-ups; and 4) Soft-pedal New Hampshire and focus on South Carolina; the Mormon issue is not going away in the Deep South.
All in all, the night couldn’t have gone much better for Santorum, and the most important piece of it was Perry all but announcing his departure.
(Cross-posted, with permission of the author, from Politico’s Arena)
By Rod Jetton, on Mon Dec 26, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET (Click Here to read Part 1 of Rod Jetton’s 4 part series: “Losing a Good Friend”)
 I remember an old Colonel giving a speech to all the young officer recruits back in boot camp. He told us about the Marine Corps and what being a Marine was all about. This talk always stuck in my mind because he said, “There is an easy way and a hard way. Marines always take the hard way. Marines don’t take shortcuts; we work harder, fight harder and think smarter.”
This was new to me and seemed wrong. High school and college was about finding a better and easier way to do everything. Our teachers and society pushed taking the path of least resistance. I didn’t know exactly what he meant at first. The colonel gave examples using past wars where U.S. Marines made tough decisions, and won battles that changed American history. He pointed out that many times their decisions made it harder on those Marines. Sometimes, they even lost more lives when faced with a tough choice, but they always accomplished the mission and followed their orders.
I can’t remember the name of the Colonel who gave us that talk, but it might as well have been Trane. He never took shortcuts. He always knew what the Marine Corps rules and regulations were, and he always kept us on track. He was calm and cool in all situations and nothing ever seemed to ruffle his feathers.
In time, I came to understand better what the Colonel was saying, but I have always been a rebel. The Marine Corps is hard on rebels. They want team players that will work hard, follow orders, be smart and do their duty. That’s why the Corps was so good for me. I learned to depend on other people. I learned that, no matter how good I was, if I worked with others I could accomplish much bigger things. By myself, I was helpless on the battlefield.
 By the time I met Trane he already knew these things, and he is a big reason I learned some of these lessons. Now, I don’t want to paint a picture of Trane as some robot that just said, “Yes, sir.” He was far from that. His last name is McCloud, which is Scots-Irish, and he was VERY stubborn. If you were doing things right he never said much, but if he thought you were not doing it the best way he would calmly give you his thoughts.
The thing we loved about Trane was he didn’t care if you were a fellow lieutenant or the commanding general, he wasn’t afraid to speak up and correct you.
We had this captain who wasn’t a very good commander. This drove me crazy, because, back then, I always had a better idea of how to do things and I liked being in charge. This guy made following orders very difficult for all of us.
Read the rest of…
Rod Jetton: Remembering a Hero, Part 2 – Trane McCloud, Putting Duty First
By RP Staff, on Fri Dec 23, 2011 at 2:15 PM ET The RP is back in The Huffington Post this week with a provocative column crediting Adam Sandler with saving the Jewish people. Sort of…
Here’s an excerpt:
But as silly as his lyrics were on the surface, Sandler’s sing-songy outing of pop culture icons with Jewish blood was sort of revelatory to his fellow Chosen People. Who knew that James Caan — Sonny Corleone! — lit the Hanukkah menorah? And while the Jewish-ness of Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) was well-known (we all learned in Hebrew School that the Vulcan hand salute was a tribute to a rabbinic blessing gesture), the Hebraic faith of Captain Kirk (William Shatner) was a welcome surprise. And Harrison Ford being a quarter Jewish? Not too shabby.
(Actually, Harrison Ford is fully half-Jewish. And contrary to another Sandlerian stanza, baseball Hall-of-Famer Rod Carew — whose wife and children were Jewish — did not convert: The former California Angel and Minnesota Twin was never a Member of the Tribe. But who’s kvetching?)
I remember picturing myself as a child in the ’70s, literally the only kid on my block (with my sis) without a Christmas tree. What I would have given to have known at the time that the epitome of coolness — The Fonz himself (Henry Winkler) — had a Bar Mitzvah! I imagined millions of other children learning the same way that many of their celebrity idols spun the Hanukkah dreidel, just like they did.
Click here to read the full column at The Huffington Post.
And have a Happy Chanukah!
By Jonathan Miller, on Wed Dec 21, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET
The Last American Jew.
It was an alarming image for a Jewish adolescent.
Yet in the 1980s, it was a common theme of our temple youth group gatherings.
Jewish teens in Generation X were admonished regularly about demographic trends and intermarriage rates that suggested our community could soon splinter into the dustbin of history — as early as the end of the 21st century.
At the same time, our rabbis began to share a darker take on the holiday of Chanukah, at variance with the bright and fanciful miracle of our childhood celebrations. (You know the legend: how the day’s supply of the Great Temple’s oil lasted eight crazy nights, yadda, yadda, yadda.)
As teens, we were old enough to process the back story — how Judah Maccabee and his brothers successfully revolted against the Greek King Antiochus’ oppressive regime that was exploiting Jewish assimilation, poised to destroy our religion from within. We were warned gravely that 20th century assimilation similarly could lead to our own extinction.
The Eighties indeed were a challenging time for American Jewry. Overt, sometimes violent anti-Semitism had almost entirely vanished, the horrors of the Holocaust still fresh in the minds of our parents’ generation. And yet, in many areas of middle America such as my old Kentucky home, we were still the “other”: There were social clubs my family couldn’t join, classmates’ parties to which I wasn’t invited, civic organizations that excluded my parents — all because of our separate faith. Anti-Zionism coincidentally peaked during the decade, as Israel’s war in Lebanon provoked unbalanced, disproportional coverage of the Jewish State from much of the American media.
It was easy to understand why so many Jews — particularly our youngest — took comfort by fading into the multi-colored fabric of secularized Christianity that enveloped American culture. With Gentile discrimination so diffuse and subtle, the only remaining strident enemy in the 3000-year battle for Jewish survival was, in fact, ourselves.
But then the 1990s brought forth a modern-day Judah Maccabee: Adam Sandler.
OK, so I exaggerate a little.
What the Nineties did bring was an army of modern Maccabees, in the form of prominent, familiar, likable Jews thrust into the pop media spotlight: Jews that were both clearly identifiable and proud of their heritage.
This helped produce a dramatic sea change in Christian Americans’ acceptance of their Jewish neighbors. In the vast center of the country where few Jews lived, ignorance previously had bred distrust and suspicion. Now, through the magic of television — and shows such as Northern Exposure, Beverly Hills 90210, Friends, and most prominently, Seinfeld — Jewish comedians, actors, and characters entered the living rooms of middle America. Rural citizens who’d never met a Jew before now “knew” dozens, and understood that “they were just like us” — maybe a bit wackier.
Just as significant was the impact on Jewish Americans. We could now hold our heads up a bit higher, feel a little more comfortable to publicly pronounce our faith. We were now the tellers of Jewish jokes, alternatively wry and self-deprecating, instead of divisive and mean-spirited.
Read the rest of…
The RP: How Adam Sandler’s “Chanukah Song” Helped Save the Jews. Seriously…
By Sandra Moon, RP Staff, on Mon Dec 19, 2011 at 1:30 PM ET
In Saudi Arabia, a woman has been executed for practicing witchcraft and sorcery. [BBC]
According to Jesse Jackson, Jesus was an occupier. [MSNBC]
A partnership of Christians, Jews and Muslims in Omaha seeks to build a tri-faith religious campus. The hope is to provide “an opportunity not only to learn to tolerate people of different backgrounds and beliefs and aspirations, but to find ways to even celebrate all we have in common, to learn and grow precisely as women and men and children who experience God in different ways and call God by different names.” [Huffington Post]
By Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, on Wed Dec 14, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET  Even though 98 percent of sexually active Catholic women use birth control during their reproductive years, U.S. bishops are fighting it
Last month, the Vatican issued a clarion call to all people of conscience. It wasn’t about contraception or masturbation or gay marriage or any of the other aspects of peoples’ love lives have drawn religious ire through the ages. Instead, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace stepped forward to question the morality of a global economic system that relentlessly enriches a privileged few while the rest of humanity struggles to keep their heads above water.
The council reaffirmed the notion highlighted in Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 encyclical on the economy, arguing that open markets — usually the engines of prosperity — can foster poverty and inequality when unscrupulously exploited for selfish ends. As a counterbalance, the council called for international standards and safeguards to stem the world’s worsening inequities in the concentration of wealth.
With millions of Americans looking for jobs and struggling in this economy, you might expect the nation’s Catholic bishops to join the Vatican’s quest to level the economic playing field. However, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) have other priorities. They are consumed just now with the subject of birth control. The bishops’ leadership is unhappy about a new national policy that includes birth control under preventive health care: a designation that requires new health plans to cover it in full, without the co-payments and deductibles that keep many women from using it effectively. This policy, which was adopted last summer and goes into effect next August, is both laudable and common-sense.
With yesterday, the 8th day of December, marking the Feast of the Immaculate Conception — which refers to Mary’s being conceived free of original sin, not the conception of Jesus — it would be wise of the bishops to realize that the conception of Mary by her human parents, Saint Joachim and Saint Anne, is a reminder that woman are people of conscience and can decide for themselves when it is best to conceive. In fact, birth control use is universal, even among Catholic women: 98 percent of sexually active Catholic women use birth control during their reproductive years.
Read the rest of…
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend: Out of Step With the Flock
By Sandra Moon, RP Staff, on Mon Dec 12, 2011 at 1:30 PM ET
Here’s a video starring Jesus, addressing Rick Perry’s campaign ads. [FunnyOrDie]
Controversy ensues after home improvement store Lowe’s pulled its commercials from the reality television show “All-American Muslim.” [Entertainment Weekly]
Mary, mother of Jesus–the first punk rocker? [Patheos]
Skinny jeans are scandalous in some Mormons communities. [Religion Dispatches]
By Jonathan Miller, on Mon Dec 12, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET As the author of a book on the role of faith and public policy and — perhaps more significantly — a religious minority (Jewish) who grew up and lives in the Bible Belt, I’m particularly sensitive to any implication of religious bias and discrimination in my home state of Kentucky.
Indeed, I’ve used this very forum to bemoan anti-Hindu attacks leveled by a gubernatorial candidate, call out anti-Semitic slurs ejaculated by a prominent GOP official, and celebrate the recent emergence of prominent Jew-ish Gentiles in American pop culture.
That’s why I’m especially concerned about the possible outbreak of anti-Christian pandemonium in the wake of a disturbing event Saturday night that rocked the Bluegrass faithful.
Some quick background: I’m often asked how a Jewish pischer like me could get elected to office in a place like Kentucky. My reply is that there is only one organized religion in my home state, and that’s University of Kentucky basketball.
Each fall, people in every corner of the Commonwealth (except discrete subdivisions of Louisville) join together in spiritual reverie to cherish the flagship state university’s roundballers. By March, the devotional frenzy reaches the point of, yes, madness, as the Wildcats inevitably surge deep into the NCAA tourney.
But precisely twenty seasons ago, Kentucky’s hopes for championship salvation were cruelly and iniquitously sabotaged by a Devil named Christian.
Read the rest of…
The RP: Anti-Christian Fervor Consumes Kentucky (No, This isn’t a “War on X-mas” Article)
By Sandra Moon, RP Staff, on Mon Dec 5, 2011 at 1:30 PM ET
Moral America, an extremist religious group, has asked followers to pray for the death of singer George Michael. [Advocate.com]
Would the world be better without religion? Watch this debate to hear opinions on this matter. [Intelligence Squared]
A church in Pike County, Kentucky bans interracial couples from church membership. [Huffington Post]
Adam, Eve, and Genetics: Conservative Christians tend to read the Bible literally, yet with the advances in the understanding of the human genome, some conservative scholars are saying publicly that they can no longer believe the Genesis creation account. [NPR]
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